Bolden, Abraham (1935- )

Abraham Bolden, often
erroneously referred to as the first black Secret Service Agent, was in
fact the first black agent assigned to the prestigious White House
Detail. Bolden was born to Daniel and Ophelia Bolden in East St.
Louis, Illinois on January 19, 1935. He graduated from East St.
Louis’s Lincoln High School in 1952 and attended Lincoln University in
Jefferson City, Missouri on a music scholarship, graduating cum laude
in 1956. After graduation, Bolden married his longtime friend and
schoolmate Barbara L. Hardy. The marriage lasted 49 years until her
death on December 27, 2005. The couple had three children.

In
1956 Bolden became the first African American to be employed as a
detective by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He then served
as an Illinois State Highway Patrolman. In October 1960, Bolden joined
the US Secret Service, becoming their second black agent (after Charles
L. Gittens, who was hired in 1956). Bolden was assigned to investigate
counterfeiting cases.

On
April 28, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, after a brief conversation
with Bolden in Chicago, had him join the White House Secret Service
Presidential Protective Division. From June 6, 1961 to July 6, 1961,
Bolden traveled with and guarded President Kennedy. Following his
probationary period, Bolden decided to return to Chicago as a field
agent in the counterfeiting division.

After
Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, Bolden’s career
imploded. He accused the Secret Service of misconduct regarding the
Dallas, Texas tragedy and threatened to divulge information concerning the
President’s lack of proper security to the Warren Commission
investigating the President’s death. The Commission never called Agent
Bolden to testify. Instead, in May 1964, Bolden was fired from his
post and then arrested by Secret Service agents who charged him with
soliciting a $50,000 bribe from a counterfeiting ring that he had
helped to break.

Bolden
was convicted and imprisoned at the Springfield, Illinois Medical
Center for Federal Prisoners, despite the admission by one of main
prosecution witnesses, counterfeiter Joseph Spagnoli, that he had been
encouraged to lie during the trial. During his confinement, prison
officials attempted unsuccessfully to declare Bolden insane. He remained
at Springfield until his parole in September 1969 after serving three
years and three months of a six-year sentence in Federal confinement.
Bolden returned to Chicago and worked for several companies in Chicago
while trying to clear his name for what he believed was an unjust
conviction.

In
January 1978 Bolden gave testimony on his experiences and his
allegations concerning the Kennedy Assassination to two investigators
of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The Committee’s final
report, released in March 1979, stated that the Secret Service was
deficient in the performance of its duties in Dallas. Bolden felt
vindicated by this report. In 2008 Bolden wrote The Echo from Dealey Plaza
which detailed his charges. The book describes the racism in the
Secret Service at the time, and his difficulties with both colleagues
and supervisors during his six years with the agency. He also
discussed how he failed to recognize the consequences of challenging
this powerful agency in the 1960s when whistleblowers were rare and
often not deemed credible.

Bolden’s
40-year campaign to clear his name and highlight abuses in the Secret
Service around the Kennedy Assassination have finally been recognized.
He was the recipient of the 2008 Scottish Hugo’s Companion Tankard
Award for Courage, the 2008 African American Arts Alliance Award for
Excellence, and the 2008 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Award for Courage.
He has also been cited by the National Urban League as being one of America’s
Outstanding Black Men.

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